Ok, how about "lemure"? The word "Lemure" is quite obscure; it shows up on dictionary.com as "lemures" (LEM-yur-eez), which were "spirits or ghosts of the departed." A ghost with glassy wings… sounds good so far. "Lemure" is a questionable "singularization" of the word, and may have been copied from Dungeons & Dragons. The Lemure—a subtype of Devil—appeared in the original Advanced D&D Monster Manual. The idea of a type of lesser Devil seems to fit what the Lemure is in Magic terms: an evil black creature. This all makes sense, as the Ice Age team was pretty heavy into D&D, and the creature type was "Lemure," and not "Ghost" or "Spirit."

Of course, the poor artist—Richard Thomas—was not as well versed in minor Devils (or Latin), and painted what he thought the card was supposed to be… a lemur. That's right, a small, nocturnal primate from Madagascar with big eyes and a bushy tail. Who can blame him?